Zoro's Sleep
by chibi-viki
Summary: Roronoa Zoro loved to sleep. No one in the Straw Hat Pirate crew questioned it. But what they didn't know was, it wasn't the sleep that Zoro loved... it was the one between it. Slight ZoroxKuina


**A/N: (04-12-07) **Story edited for the misuse of quotation marks, commas and periods. Thank you for the reviews! For any remaining typographical and grammatical errors… I'm sorry n.n;

Thank you to all those who reviewed my story! They are greatly appreciated XD

**Disclaimer:** One Piece not mine

"**Zoro's Sleep"**

**By: Chibi Viki**

Roronoa Zoro loved to sleep. This was a given fact. No one in the Straw Hat Pirate crew questioned it. After all, it was but one of the many given quirks to this easily excitable swordsman.

But there was another reason why Zoro loved to sleep.

Up on the deck near the bow of the ship, Zoro laid down for his nap. In the middle of the state between sleep and awake, he could feel the soft grass under his back, the gentle breeze of spring wind on his face, the slowly setting sun over the horizon… and the calm face of the girl he held dear to his heart watching the sun disappear.

"I see you got a new crewmember," she began.

"Yeah. She's Ms. All-Sunday – Nico Robin," he replied nonchalantly, "I don't really trust her though."

She gave him a look that was a cross between surprise and interest.

"Then trust Luffy," she replied with a soft smile, "He had yet to steer you wrong."

"A-ah."

Zoro sat up. She was just a few inches away from him but somehow he felt like she was still far away.

"You're still not getting along with Sanji?" she asked quite mischievously.

Zoro's lips curved into a frown. "I don't think I'll ever get along with that lecherous curly eyebrowed prick."

His eyes wondered over to her as she laughed and a thought crossed his mind. _If you were only there with me and he ever laid a hand on you I would've killed him before you would have had the chance to stop me_. He smiled at the thought and kept his eyes on her.

Ever since he took the Wado Ichimonji in his hands, she began to appear to him like this. In the limbo between sleep and reality, was their little world. Just the two of them, sitting close watching the sun set on the horizon. A piece of time in the past trapped in his subconscious that he would not let go.

Zoro's appearance there was that of his present 19-year old state while she remained as her 13 year old self.

She noticed him looking at her and gave him a frown of her own. "What?" she asked incredulously.

Zoro found it hard not to smile at her. At least she, in his dream, won't be able to tell the others just how mushy he could be when it was just the two of them.

"I was thinking what you would've looked like if you were still alive," he replied as he looked away from her, "Would you be taller than me? Would you have grown your hair long? Would you –"

"Would I look like Tashigi?" she inserted with a flat tone of voice.

Zoro raised a brow at her. "Tashigi?"

"I know I look like her, Zoro."

"So?"

She sighed. "She looks like me. She talks like me. She's even got the same personality as I have. She's like a clone of mine, only clumsier."

From that icy tone of her voice, Zoro knew she was piqued. It had been quite a while since they talked about Tashigi. It was really rather difficult to control himself from talking about the marine during his mid-sleep rendezvous with her.

Zoro sighed.

"But you are not her," he growled.

For a while, there was silence between them. Zoro looked up to the darkening sky.

"Kuina," he began in a gentle voice that was close to a whisper, "… would you have joined me if I asked you to start this journey around the Blue Sea with me? Would you be happy if I take you with me and fight by my side against such strong opponents as the ones I've already encountered?". He paused for another sigh and continued, "Would you have joined me as a member of the Straw Hat Pirates?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Zoro…"

"Zoro…"

"ZORO!!"

Roronoa Zoro woke up from his sleep with a jolt. Nami had tried to shake him awake for some time now and it was starting to get on her nerves.

"Alright, I'm up already," he muttered angrily.

"Geez, Zoro, you sure love to sleep," Nami complained.

He scratched his head in frustration. For some reason, they always woke him up at the wrong moment just like this. Next time, he was determined to sleep somewhere in the ship where they wouldn't find him so easily.

Roronoa Zoro loved to sleep. This was a given fact. No one in the Straw Hat Pirate crew questioned it. After all, it was but one of the many given quirks to this easily excitable swordsman.

But what the straw-hats didn't know, and what Zoro would never ever tell them was, it wasn't the sleep that he loved. It was the one between it.

**END –**

A/N: My first One Piece fanfic. I love Zoro, what else can I say :)


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